Tying and Untying the Trouser-Cord - University of Hawaii

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56 J. W. Frembgen hadith refer to the disapproval of tight and transparent clothes (Madani 1998, pp. 74 /6). The requirement of observing satr is also clearly expressed in the following hadith collected by Tirmizi: ‘Save yourself from nudity because two angels are with you all the time, except when you go to the toilet or engage in sexual intercourse; so, be bashful of them and respect their presence.’ In the language of symbols in Islam, the dialectical relationship between virtues and vices is transposed to parts of the body. Moral character and reason (aql) are thought to be placed in the head, whereas the nafs al-ammarah, that is, the urging or demanding soul which is connected with passion and desire, is situated in the loins. The lowest value is attributed to the feet. Within Sufism the moral conflict between aql and nafs is fought as an inner jihad (struggle). As far as the differentiation of gender in the male perspective of everyday culture is concerned, men are said to have aql */intellect, whereas women embody the undisciplined impulses of the nafs */ emotion and sexuality. Following this dichotomous folk construction, based on naturalistic, reductionist views of the body, women are considered by men to be sexually wild, dangerously promiscuous, and therefore easy to seduce. Moreover, viewed as being closer to nature than to culture, they are thought to be less guided by reason and to have less control over their ‘unstable’ bodily functions (referring, for example, to menstruation). Provocative or improper female dressing is therefore interpreted as a positive signal and likely to arouse sexual temptation (fitna). According to the hadith collected by al-Bukhari, women represent the greatest fitna, a dangerous, destructive emotion which threatens order and stability. Particularly seen from the rigid perspective of Islamists, men should domesticate the expressive activities of their women in order to avoid adultery, that is, they should be watchful that women cover their sources of charm and under no circumstances expose themselves. This strict practice of interpreting verses from the Qur’an referring to the control of emotion is also reflected in proverbial expressions suggesting that the trouser-cords of their wives is most dear to men. It is even reported that in the Mughal period an officer used to seal the trouser-cords of his women before he left for the court, but out of vexation the ladies soon killed him (Annemarie Schimmel, pers. comm., letter dated 3 April 2000). The language of Islamic dress consequently comprises fixed grammatic rules, which mean that a morally immaculate and virtuous behaviour is achieved through carefully knotting the trouser-cord. Similarly, loosely flowing hair is bound*/bound hair being a general symbol of the control of female chastity in Muslim societies. In education, girls and boys are advised to pay attention to the correctly bound cord. Maulana Thanawi notes in the Tenth Book of his Bihishti Zewar: ‘Do not come out of the privy or bathroom tying your belt, but tie it carefully before coming out’ (Metcalf, 1992, p. 336). 16 Such body management norms are adopted at a subconscious level, becoming an internalised way of correct behaviour in everyday life. Proverbs and sayings recommending modesty in dress and comportment reflect the moral responsibility of the individual for his body seen from the emic perspective of Muslim cultures. They are closely related to taqwa, a central Qur’anic concept
The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology 57 mostly translated as ‘piety’, which implies the meaning of care, fear of God, and protecting oneself against the forbidden and sinful. Hence such proverbs are a direct manifestation of the normative concept of ‘awra; they contain cultural rules of emotion whose application in concrete actions is observable. Depending on the specific context and speech situation, they are strategically used in everyday interactions among adults and between adults and children to refer to correct outer behaviour. In the course of fieldwork in Indo-Pakistan, I recorded expressions and phrases from the moral use of language among speakers of Urdu, Hindi, Punjabi, Pashto, Persian, and Burushaski. A further source were dictionaries of local languages. These idiomatic formulas and expressions containing rules, advice, and references constitute ‘practical texts’ in the sense of Foucault who emphasised their ‘etho-poetic’ function (Foucault 1986, pp. 20 /1). Generally, such proverbs say that a person should exercise self-control and avoid sin. In Punjabi the expression nale da pakka hona, inUrdunale ka pakka hona (lit. ‘for the cord to be tight’), means that a person should take care of his trouser-cord, that is, he should control himself and guard his moral purity. Similarly, in Pakhtun culture, where honour is of utmost importance, we find several sayings like: baga chatha ne spachdal in the sense of the injunction ‘you should not dare to open your trouser-cord in front of anyone’. In everyday speech this saying is used in a modified way in sentences like: hagha da bage na dair teeng de */‘He does not open his trouser-cord to anyone’, that is ‘he is not a person of easy virtue’. A very common Pashto proverb runs: baga de sanbale satha */‘Always keep hold of your trouser-cord in a safe place’, that is ‘it should be properly secured by knots’. This could have been said, for instance, in former times, by a Pakhtun lady bidding farewell to her husband when he was about to leave for Hindustan to work for a long period as a horse-trader or sword-seller. In this way she expressed her trust (yaqin, bharosa) that her husband would remain faithful (ba-wafa) to her. Matrimonial fidelity (wafadari) is highly valued in Islam, as, for example, in the very popular legend of Yusuf and Zuleikha (also mentioned in Sura 12 of the Qur’an), the point of which is that Yusuf safeguarded his chastity despite the repeated advances of the enticing Zuleikha, Potiphar’s beautiful wife. The enlightening quality of proverbs became especially apparent to me when I recorded my first saying on the trouser-cord in February 1995 in Jodhpur (Rajasthan). It runs in Hindi: ghore ki tang aur admi ka ling bandha hi chahie (or...bandhe rahna chahie) meaning ‘the penis (which is guarded by the pajama-string) should be as securely fastened as the leg of the horse (by a bridle)’. A well-knotted trouser-cord proves that a person is disciplined and not of easy virtue. It has already been shown that this is also of crucial importance for mystics and ascetics. The Chishti-Sufi Hamid ud-Din Savali Nagauri (d. 1274) reportedly reprimanded his pleasure-seeking former companions, who tried to encourage him to return to a sinful life, saying: ‘Go and sit in a corner, for I have tied up my pyjama-cord so tight that I shall not even open it for the houris on the morrow of the Resurrection’ (Currie 1989, p. 57). Knots generally stand for responsibility. Among Punjabis, the expression ‘tying the knots (around one’s neck)’ means to be bound by responsibilities, as when, for
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Page 7: with which the string is slipped th
Page 11 and 12: show it around and rudely demand th
Page 13 and 14: Platts 1997[1884], p. 45; Steingass
Page 15 and 16: But, in spite of ‘village Romeos
Page 17 and 18: cutting off male gazes’ (Gold 199

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